Without an official date of publication, it is impossible to know with any certainty when this cookbook was published, though the latter half of the 1940s is a likely estimate. The cookbook highlights milk as an important part of every meal as it is the feature ingredient of nearly every recipe in the book. A few of the pages explain the healthful qualities of milk, noting that it contains “each of the vitamins so far discovered - A, B, C, D, E, and G” and that it is a “protective food.” This emphasis on nutrition and so-called “protective foods” falls in line with beliefs about health and nutrition at the time. As a result of the Second World War, which occurred between 1939 and 1945, nutrition was a popular topic. Concerns about malnutrition affecting soldiers’ ability to fight and workers' productivity at home prompted increased interest in scientific studies of nutrition, as well as greater involvement from the federal government to ensure the Canadian populace was properly nourished. This resulted in the creation of the Canadian Nutrition Program, the first large-scale nutrition campaign in Canadian history. It also resulted in the publication of Canada’s first Official Food Rules in 1942, a precursor to Canada's Food Guide. Canadians were instructed to eat specified servings of “health protective foods” everyday that were rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins for optimal health. Milk was one of the foods prescribed for daily consumption by Canada’s Official Food Rules. This type of messaging remained the norm until 1961 when Canada's Food Rules became Canada's Food Guide. Since then, the recommendations around milk have changed but it is still considered a nutritious food.

Canadians' understandings about health and nutrition underwent some significant changes throughout the 1930s and 1940s, as did conceptions of femininity and beauty. As parts of this cookbook show, these two things were considered directly linked to one another. For example, a page in the cookbook features a heading that reads “Milk for a glamourous complexion.” Below is a textbox asking the question “Can your complexion bear his closest scrutiny?” It is also noted how milk clears the skin of blemishes and acts as a “calcium beauty treatment” akin to what would be prescribed by a dermatologist. Throughout the early twentieth century, physical appearance was considered an important part of a woman's worth. Advertising campaigns from the early 1900s to the 1940s focused on achieving physical beauty, especially for the purposes of attracting a male partner. By the 1930s and 1940s, these advertisements and messages were including advice from "scientific experts" who were using research related to nutrition and the properties of food to promote beauty products. Similar messages can be found in The Milky Way to Health and Beauty: Selected Recipes where daily milk consumption is claimed to be a treatment often prescribed by skin specialists to obtain a clearer complexion.  

One of the reasons these themes in advertising became so prevalent was the desire to return to the pre-war 'normal.' During the Second World War, many Canadian women took on roles that, historically, were occupied by men. In some cases, women began to dress in a more masculine fashion because their jobs required greater range of movement. When the war ended and veterans expressed a desire to return to their former jobs, women were urged to leave the workforce and resume their pre-war roles. Along with being consummate wives, mothers, and homemakers, women were also expected to adhere to a certain standard of beauty, especially to have clear skin and a thin build. Even today, as different body types become more socially-acceptable, being 'overweight' is still often seen as a failure at being feminine. Similar views are implied in this cookbook, as it reiterates several times how milk is non-fattening while highlighting its positive impacts on feminine beauty.

The Milky Way to Health and Beauty: Selected Recipes is the product of a time when heightened concern about nutrition coincided with societal pressures on women to adhere to a strict notion of beauty/femininity. Both can be considered reactions to the circumstances of the Second World War. As the war raged on, concerns about the health and performance of soldiers and workers grew, so recent discoveries about vitamins and people’s nutritional needs became increasingly relevant. At the same time, women were being targeted by advertisers to appear beautiful and then pressured to return to domestic roles so men could once again become breadwinners.